Thursday, June 10, 2010

I'm Left Handed & Running

It's true. I've been left-handed my whole life. Even to the dismay of my preschool teacher who tried to force me into being right-handed because, as she told my mom, "being left-handed is from the devil." I rarely think about this fact. It doesn't affect my daily life. To others I may do things weird, but their way is weird to me. The main time I do think about this is when eating out, because the seating always causes bumping elbows if I'm not seated in a good spot.

Well, today I discovered another way that being a lefty affects my life. Marcel bought me a really nice running shirt that has a pocket on the sleeve to carry an ipod. In the back of this pocket is a small hole for the headphone cord. I have struggled every time I've worn this shirt to get the headphones through the hole. I've usually ended up taking the shirt off, putting the cord in and then putting the shirt back on. Today I realized my big problem: it is on the LEFT sleeve which requires that I use my right hand for this task.

I'm learning that I'm not as ambidextrous as I maybe have thought :)

More about running...
Since Emily and I ran our 5K on April 10th, I hadn't ran until May 25th, when I went to my second doctor appointment about my knee pain. Turns out my knee is very strong, meaning all my ligaments and such. The doctor thinks that my muscles just aren't strong enough to help support it. So I'm doing quadriceps strengthening exercises, bought insoles to help with shock absorption, purchased new shoes mainly because they were needed knee pain or not, taking a prescription ibuprofen twice a day to help with pain and the slight swelling I still have since my knee started hurting April 8th. Things are going okay. I'm still running, but my knee is still hurting. I have a knee brace from my knee surgery 7 years ago (it makes me feel so old to say it was that long ago) that helped my knee 2 days after injury (I use that word in the wrong way, because I didn't get hurt, my knee just started hurting) complete a 5K but I'm on strict doctor's orders not to use it because if my knee gets used to having it for extra support I'll probably always need it. I really want to register for a half-marathon, I'm thinking September or October, so that I have a reason to run, some extra motivation, which I think I'm going to need for training outdoors in the summer weather. I'd rather run in the rain than sun! However, I am going to wait to register until I go back to the doctor for my follow-up on June 23rd. Last time she did talk about physical therapy but she said with the internet I should be able to find plenty of exercises to do without having to pay a lot of money for a PT. She also said I may have to have a knee strap to place under my knee cap. Now that I write that out, I'm confused, because if I can't wear my brace due to potential dependence would the band work the same. I'm not even 25, I don't want my body depended on something artifical already. All I know is that I'm trying to be healthy, trying to treat my body right and I want to run without pain. Hope I see some positive changes soon!

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